All Forum Posts by: Randy Babineau

Hello All, My In-Laws are building a 1 bedroom apartment that is detached from my home on my property. It will have its own address, but is still on my land. As my town only allows 1 owner per lot of land, the apartment they are building will be in my name and will be fully gifted to me by my in-laws. I spoke with my tax accountant and he said that I can charge them fair market rent, and claim the expenses from the rental. I do have two other rental properties that are not currently in an LLC as the banks wouldn't allow that. Since the new property is being paid for in cash, I dont have that limitation from a bank. So my question is, can I set this up in an LLC? This would give my in-laws some peace of mind, since they are concerned that if something were to ever happen at my other rentals and I were to be sued, then they could take my primary residence and their new home. I do have a 1M umbrella along with the standard 500k liability on each property. Thanks for your help with this.

Hello, I am a real-estate investor and currently have a few properties that I solely own. I have a close friend that he and I have been talking for the past few years on setting up a business and purchasing properties together. This opens the avenue for me to invest in larger unit buildings as he has a lot of capital that could match mine. I know the high level risks of working with a friend, but he and I have similar work ethics and opinions. Do any of you have an outline of the process that we should follow to ensure our venture is successful? I found some articles online, but was hoping BP's community could share your experience with me.  Also, I am looking for ongoing operation of the partnership, such as how do taxes work, etc. 

Thank you! 

I currently own a fourplex and have raised the rents for all units over the last two years of owning the property, but the rents are still below average for the area. If I decide to raise the rents again, are there any laws that I have to raise the rents for all units at the same rate? All units are approximately in the same condition and size, also all of the tenants are longer term tenants. One of my tenants is also a plumber and does a lot of work for me at a discounted rate, so I dont want to raise his rent as high as the others. I do have one tenant that is on Section 8. So the question is, can I raise one or two of the tenants rents, without raising the others? Is that discriminatory to the other tenants? Thank you in advance! 

I currently own a fourplex which all tenants are on a month to month lease. I purchased the property in January 2022. When I purchased the property, I had the previous landlord increase the rents which were way below market value. In order to not raise the rent too high too quickly, I chose to do a smaller rent increase. I am looking to increase the rent again in the upcoming year. My question is, do I need to provide written notice or can I just send them a new lease in December 2022 with a start date of March 1 2023 with the rent amount increased on that? Does that suffice as a notice? In the state of Vermont, I only need to provide a 60 day notice of rent increase. Should I send the lease and another document highlighting the rent increase as well? 

When I listen to podcasts through Bigger Pockets, I always hear people say they sold a rental property they owned for years because they needed cash for X reasons. Why wouldn't people do a cash out refinance so they can keep the cash flow and still get the money? Am I missing something? 

Hello All, 

I recently purchased a 4 unit property using a conventional mortgage. This is my second multi-family property that I now own as I have a 2 unit property as well. For the 2 unit property, I setup an LLC which has that 2 unit in it. My question is, should I setup a second LLC for the 4 unit property or should I just use the same LLC for both?

So should I perform a walkthrough checklist and have the tenants sign once I purchase the property (day 1) My fear was that if a tenant destroyed the place after I purchase it, they could just say it was like that when they moved in and I wouldn't be able to take their deposits or sue for additional damages because I didn't have anything to prove otherwise. I do have it setup that I get their security deposit at time of closing. 

I am purchasing a fourplex and the seller did not perform a pre-move in walkthrough checklist with the current tenants. I had requested the seller to complete this checklist prior to closing, but she is now saying that she won't have it done by then. I don't have an option to extend my closing date due to my rate lock extension being maxed out. The seller did say that she could complete the checklist with the tenants post closing, but isn't that too late? What do you recommend I do?